New product for toddlers who are caught brown-handed (NSFL)

Potty training disasters are inevitable. A company called “Heaven’s Lil Blessings Boutique” has developed a product promises to exacerbate the problem. If you like kids with shitty fingers, this is for you!

“Great for little hands that can’t quitfigure out how to keep their hands clean / covered when wiping.”

I know it’s bad form to nitpick grammar in casual internet posts, and this is a very small DIY business run entirely on facebook. This is the rare double-fail, so I couldn’t resist a chuckle.

This Handeco Wipes product is simply a horrible idea.

It’s made of cotton, which is not known to be ‘water’-proof.

Children with an already clumsy grasp will not improve with a damn oven mitt on.

Assuming even a week or two supply is optimal, washing this frequently is hardly ‘eco-friendly’ (power and water consumption).

Speaking of shitty fingers

It seriously reminded me of the culture shock I experienced on my first deployment. I witnessed ‘Third Country Nationals” (TCN’s) leaving the back of the dining facility with a water bottle in their hand walking over to the port-o-potties. I saw it dozens of times before it occurred to me why they did this. They don’t use toilet paper, the Islamic tradition is to use their bear hand (left) and rinse it with water. Then they go back inside and serve me breakfast. Hooah!

Later some soldier told me about the time they were ordered to stop letting the TCN’s have water bottles. It was supposed to be a security threat, like with TSA and ’3 ounces of liquids’. The soldier told me that the insides of all of the port-o-potties were covered with “layers of shit graffiti.” This rule only lasted a single day.

Maybe the Heaven’s Lil Blessings Boutique should set up a facebook page in Arabic. Allah’s Lil Ahk-Bazaar?

I hope I don’t sound insensitive. I have no assumption that “USA is NUMBER 1 at how to poop!!!” All over the world, there are many variations on the toilet experience. I appreciate cultural diversity, but I really think this is a hygiene issue.

Hold on, I have to tell STFU Parents about this abomination of a product…

Doggy

I know they are culturally different, but do they actually have bear hands?

Ellie

Doggy, I think I’m in love with you! :))

beerslayer

Doggy: Yes, they have bear hands. The fur makes them a lot softer than dried corn cobs…

Ringo

Didn’t Mythbusters take on tp? Iirc, you still get bacteria on your fingers even if they’re covered in paper, so as long as hands are being properly washed after using the toilet hygiene should be good.

Robin

Ringo,

I think the sticking point is “Properly Washed” You can’t do that with a water bottle. Hopefully they had soap and water available back in the kitchen.

Ruth

Are you really telling us that there was no means available of properly washing hands between using the port-o-potties and handling food? It sounds like that’s your hygiene issue right there, not whether people use paper or water.

Don’t you see the disconnect between criticising cotton gloves as ‘not known to be water-proof’, and considering toilet-paper preferable to washing?

jesse

I think the bare-handed thing might be a bit of a myth. I’ve been to the Middle East, and a noticed couple of things:

1. The sewage system and toilets can’t handle toilet paper anyway (they clog easily, since you can’t have the 5 gallons per flush or whatever in the US, since there is much less water and it is not cheap).

2. Bidets. Lots of bidets. Even in cheap hotels. Or basically one of those hose things like we have here by the sink for dishes.

3. The water bottle might have been used in a similar fashion to the bidet.

4. many places had toilet paper but you chuck it in the trash, not down the toilet.

Now, I was in Jordan. The situation may be very different in Iraq or Lebanon or Syria.

Ysanne

While travelling, I got an explanation of the local potty protocol in Egypt and India, respectively.

* It’s not (just) your hand that you wash with that water. It’s for cleaning the poop off your ass. You use your left hand for this purpose, and don’t use that hand for touching people or eating or whatever else that’s not poop-compatible.

* Usually you don’t need to bring your own water. In Egypt, in even the not-all-that-advanced places there was a separate bidet, or a little water pipe that points forward and up was built into the toilet. In India, there is usually a little tap (typically at ankle height) on the wall next to the toilet, plus a little jug to pour the water where you need it.

AAAAAND…

* After you’ve finished your actual business on the toilet, you wash both hands VERY thoroughly. I saw proper facilities for this even at a highway stop in rural India, where the toilet itself was a hole in the ground.

When you’re not really used to this, the beginning of a wash seems gross, and it’s also not trivial to avoid the water sploshing where it shouldn’t…

On the other hand, my Malaysian friends at an English school always took their bottle of water to the toilet and found it extremely unhygienic to just smear poop around with a piece of paper instead of washing it off properly.

http://stripeyunderpants.blogspot.com/ silverbuttons

I like the idea of the bidet. That seems MUCH cleaner than wiping yourself with paper. Once you are clean down there, the most you would need paper for is drying yourself, and then you would wash your hands thoroughly. I know that you can buy a device that attaches to your toilet, with a valve to turn so you can use it as a bidet.

As for those mitten wipes, what a horrible idea, no better than using your bare hands! This seems like a really bad way to teach kids proper toilet etiquette. What if they are in a store or a restaurant? Do you take these mittens along in a bag or something, so the kids won’t have to use TP? So then you’re carrying stinky, filthy mittens around until you get home to wash them? Ugh, I hope nobody does this!

Ray Staroof

I prefer the three seashells method.

Ysanne

11 – wait a sec. Are you saying these mittens are intended to substitute toilet paper? As opposed to being worn for added protection while using toilet paper? Ewww.

reeners

The water bottle is to rinse your backside. Also in most of these toilets there is a hose/spigot you can use to either cup your hand and splash yourself. Or better yet fill up your bottle and have better directional aim. I miss hole in the ground public toilets in Turkey. I felt much cleaner . But of course carried handi-wipes and TP/Kleenex! Arabs aren’t used to there being TP in the public toilets, nor can their septic systems handle TP (at least in Turkey). Even in upper-class modern homes you put your TP in the wastebasket. That is why you rinse as much shit off as possible so it don’t stink in the trash!

http://homeseptictanks.com/ Hank Farnsworth

Why don’t you use gloves then? These look like over mitts.

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